


Good Ol' Spiderman

by bennyfanks



Series: Spider-Albert [2]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Spiderman AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 08:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14637594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennyfanks/pseuds/bennyfanks
Summary: Albert's got one huge-ass secret.





	1. Chapter 1

“You’re late.”

Albert swung from the neighboring building onto the rooftop, stumbling a bit as he landed. Race, a brown paper bag clutched in his hand, was coolly leaning against the fence with his arms crossed.

“Sorry,” Albert sighed, stretching and sitting (well, more collapsing) down on the blanket that Race had laid out for the two of them. “I got caught up at work. Some guy stole a bike from a little kid, so I had to take care of that,” he explained, laying on his back. Race sat cross-legged across from him and set the brown bag down.

“What we got for dinner tonight?” he asked, arms tucked behind his head.

“Nothin’ fancy. Just some sandwiches and fruit and stuff.” Race began unpacking parchment-paper wrapped ham sandwiches and tupperwares of pineapple and strawberry.

“Sandwiches. Nice. Classic.” Albert sat up and grabbed a sandwich. He pulled up his mask just enough to uncover his mouth and took a bite. “So,” he said around his mouth full of food, “how was your day?”

“Not nearly as excitin’ as yours,” the blond boy laughed. “Just school. Academic decathlon practice. Y’know, normal stuff. How ‘bout you? Tell me about a day in the life of Spiderboy.” He grinned, popping a piece of pineapple in his mouth.

“First of all, rude.” Albert shoved the other boy’s shoulder lightly and he giggled. “But it was pretty good. Helped an old lady cross the street. Stopped a car accident. Fought off some bank robbers. Y’know, normal stuff,” he said nonchalantly. Race just snorted and shoved his shoulder back.

“Whatever,” he said, rolling his eyes jokingly. “You act like being a hero is just normal for you. There’s no way your personal life is as excitin’ as this.” Albert shrugged, swallowing a bite of fruit. “Eh. My life is pretty boring, I guess. But I’ve been doing this,” he gestures to himself in all his Spandex-clad glory, “for so long that it’s just become another part of my day. Like, I go to school all day, then it’s off to work.”

Race raised his eyebrow at him. “School, huh? You mean to say you’re in high school?”

Albert leaned back on his forearms. “No comment.”

“Oh, come on! This is our, what, fifth date? And you can’t even bother to tell a fella anything? Show me your face even?”

“Oh, these are dates now?” A smirk tugged at Albert’s lips and he noticed Race’s cheeks tinge pink. “I mean, I don’t mind callin’ ‘em dates. But you’re the one willingly dating a guy you don’t even know.”

Race laid down on his stomach, chin resting on one hand. “Guess it’s something exciting in my life. You got your whole ‘saving New York’ thing. And I’m the boy dating a masked hero, and I don’t even know the guy’s name,” he explained. “We all got our things, right?” Albert shifted to mirror Race’s position and smiled at him. “Yeah, guess so, he sighed.

They just stayed like that for awhile. Albert found himself lost in Race’s gorgeously blue eyes and his stomach was full of butterflies. He wondered if Race had ever felt the way he did in this moment; if he had ever imagined looking into his mystery boy’s eyes and just getting lost in them for hours. He felt a little bad, realizing that at any moment he could just rip off his mask and reveal himself. But that meant revealing to him that this entire time, his best friend had been lying to him. The butterflies died in his stomach and were replaced with heavy guilt.  Was he taking advantage of Race?

“Whatcha thinkin’ about, Spidey?” Race asked softly.

“That I wanna kiss you,” Albert blurted out without thinking, face immediately flushing red.

Race was also blushing as he scooted a little bit forward. “Then why don’t you?” His voice was a near-whisper and he flashed a little grin at him. _Fuck it,_ Albert thought as he abruptly closed the distance between them. Any guilty thought he had was immediately forgotten about. His lips trembled and he let out a shaky breath he didn’t know he had been holding in. The other boy tilted his head, deepening the kiss, and Albert absolutely melted.

When they finally pulled away, they pressed their foreheads together. Albert was grinning like an idiot and Race just quietly laughed at him.

“Wow,” was all Albert could muster after a few seconds.

“Really?” Race asked, biting his lip.

“Really,” he laughed as he slowly sat up. “Wish I could do this some more, but I gotta get going. Bad guys aren’t gonna fight themselves.”

Race watched him get up and smile warmly. “See ya later, Spiderman.”


	2. Chapter 2

Pain seared through his body, causing his vision to go white.

He felt like he was going to die.

Maybe he deserved it.

He had been riding the Vulture’s tail as he tried escaping, using his web to hold him back. But he had flicked his wing back, easily knocking him into the side of a building as if he was just swatting a mosquito from his face. The blow shattered a window and Albert landed face down on the ground. And he just laid there as he listened to the mechanical whirring and flapping of the villain’s wings as he ecaped. Again. He really thought he would have been able to catch him this time. Or at least slow him down in time for Mr. Stark to come and take care of him.

For a few minutes, he couldn’t even move. Just the thought of moving made him sick. His nose was definitely broken, as well as a few ribs. He felt shards of glass puncturing his suit and cuts burning his back. His ears began ringing so loud he couldn’t even hear the people now surrounding him, mumbling to one another and taking pictures.

Slowly, Albert sat up. His whole body screamed in pain, but the Amazing Spiderman couldn’t look weak in front of all these people. He was supposed to be the one protecting the city, not the one letting bad guys out of his grip and laying on the ground helplessly. People stood around him, shell shocked expressions on their face. He dismissed them with a small wave and looked up for a building to swing onto.  _Fuck, where do I even go?_  If he went home to his aunt looking like this, she would throw a fit. And he was definitely not ready to tell her his little secret. Out of options, he shot a web onto the ledge of the nearest building and just started swinging away.

Without thinking about it, he ended up on Race’s rooftop.  _Their_  rooftop. He landed ungracefully, stumbling over and collapsing on the concrete. He screamed out in pain, clutching at his ribs, which were now definitely broken if they weren’t before. The pain became too much to bear and he began hyperventilating, which only made his ribs hurt worse and made him more lightheaded. He ripped off his mask and slowly rolled onto his back, trying to take deep breaths to calm himself down.

_Okay, think, you dumbass. Who can you call right now?_  He already knew going home to his aunt wasn’t an option. And he was not going to a hospital. There was only one person who he could think of to call. So without thinking it over, he grabbed his (ridiculously shattered) phone out of the compartment on his thigh and dialed with shaky hands. His breath caught in his throat as the dial tone sounded in his ear.

“Al, it’s 11 o’clock at night, you’re interruptin’ my beauty sleep,” came the irritated reply from the other line.

“ _Race_ ,” Albert choked out. “Race, please, I need help right now.”

He heard blankets shift, supposedly Race sitting up in bed. “Hey, hey, what’s going on?” His tone completely changed and his voice was heavy with concern. “Are you hurt?”

“Maybe a little,” Albert responded, wincing when he went to rub his face, forgetting about his broken nose. “Can you _please_  come meet me?”

He heard more shifting, probably Race putting his coat on. “Ye-yeah, of course. Where are you at?”

In that moment, Albert realized what a mess he was in. Don’t tell him and just lay there all night in agony, or tell him and reveal his biggest and most dangerous secret. Not to mention the fact that he’d been lying to him for _months_ , pretending to be some handsome, mysterious stranger when he was really just a skinny, ginger dweeb. He bit his lip and closed his eyes as he let his head rest on the concrete, trying to figure out what the fuck to do.

“Alby, you still there, pal?” Albert could barely hear his voice on the other line over the thoughts swarming his head. “I can’t help if you don’t tell me where you’re at.”

“…Rooftop,” he sighed quietly.

“Huh? What rooftop? There’s like, thousands. Be more specific,” Race demanded, and Albert heard the jingling of his keys.

Albert braced himself before blurting out, “ _Our_  rooftop, Racer. Y'know, where we meet every week?… Just- hurry, okay?” He didn’t wait for a reaction or response from him. He just quickly hung up, setting his phone beside him and feeling his stomach tightening up as what he had just done settled in.

He waited a few minutes before he heard the door to the rooftop slam open and hurried footsteps coming toward him.

“You  _better_  be fuckin’ joking,” Race spat incredulously as he keeled at Albert’s side, first aid kit in hand. Albert couldn’t bring himself to look at him. He just kept staring into the sky. “Nope,” he said weakly. “S’really me.” Albert felt Race’s cold gaze fixating on him, and he never wanted so badly to run and hide.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked, voice low.

“Race, please li-”

“No!” he snapped. “I don’t need a bullshit explanation on why you’ve been lying to me and using me all this time. Who does that? Why didn’t you tell me before you decided to trick me into falling for your stupid ‘alter ego,’ huh?”

Tears sprung in Albert’s eyes and he turned his head away from him. He just heard Race sigh in exasperation as he opened the first aid kit.

“What did you do to yourself?” he asked coldly.

“Broke my nose. Probably a few ribs. There’s some glass in my back. No big deal,” he replied. Race just scoffed at him. “Take that dumb thing off and turn over,” he demanded, grabbing antiseptic and bandages from the box. Albert depressurized the suit and turned over slowly, making sure not to touch his ribs and resting his head sideways on his arm so as to not mess up his nose more. He winced as Race started using tweezers to remove the shards of glass from his back and putting antiseptic on the wounds, but he didn’t dare make a noise or start crying out of fear that he would start yelling at him. He just clenched his jaw, trying to distract himself from the pain and the thought of Race being angry with him.

After a few agonizing minutes, Race finally sat back. “I’m done. Come with me and I’ll get you some ice and pills for your broken shit,” he said, standing and dusting off his knees. Albert turned his head towards him but didn’t meet his eyes. “I’m fine. I’ll just go home,” he said quietly. Race snorted and folded his arms. “You know your aunt will kill you if you came home like that right now. Just… stay on the couch in my bedroom tonight. Tell her you were here studying and stayed the night. You’re so good at lying as it is,” he said with a tense smile.

Albert slowly got to his knees, flinching at the pain. “She’ll have to notice all this eventually anyways,” he sighed, gesturing to himself. “I’ll just… go.”

“Albert. Jesus  _Christ_ , stop being so stubborn. Just sleep here,” he insisted.

“…Fine.”

They made their way back down to Race’s apartment, not saying a word to each other. Race unlocked the door as quietly as he could and slipped inside so as to not wake his family. Albert followed close behind him as he lead him to the bedroom. He closed the door as slowly as he could so as to not make it creak, and turned to see Race digging through his dresser. He threw a t-shirt and a pair of sweats as him before getting into his bed. “There. Change out of your dumb costume into some real clothes. You know where the blankets are,” he said, flipping to face the wall. Albert watched him sadly and lingered for a few moments, but soon snapped out of it and turned around to change (even though Race wasn’t even looking at him). He settled onto the couch in the corner carefully, laying on his left side so he didn’t disturb his ribs in his sleep. If he even slept. Which didn’t seem likely as he laid there wide awake, just staring at Race’s back.

“…Hey, Race?” he whispered. But he figured that Race wasn’t going to be awake or he was going to ignore him.

“What,” came the cold reply.

“I’m…” he began nervously, not expecting him to actually respond. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen but, uh… it did. I didn’t mean to lead you on or anything. I just… it’s so much easier to talk to you with a mask on.” He picked at the fabric of the couch anxiously. Race flipped around to face him. The streetlight shining through his window glinted on his icy blue eyes, making Albert’s breath catch. He was silent before a few moments before asking, “What do you mean by that?”

“Mean by what?”

“That it’s easier to talk to me with a mask on.”

Albert shrugged, looking away from him. “…I like you, Race. A lot. But I’m just a loser, y’know? Sure, we’re best friends, but I don’t have a chance of you ever liking me like that. But when I’m Spiderman, I don’t have to be a loser. I can be a whole other person. So I guess I just felt more confident talking to you,” he admitted.

“…Let’s talk about this later, alright? You’re seriously giving me a headache right now with all these surprises.”

“Yeah…”

“Night, Al.”

“Goodnight, Racer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is all i have written of this! if you want more or have anything u wanna see just hmu!  
> thank you for reading, don't forget to kudos and comment!

**Author's Note:**

> this is something i wrote a few months ago but it's FIRE so i decided to post it here! i might make this into a full fic and maybe a spralbert thing bc i love those boys.  
> as always thank u for reading! if u enjoyed pls kudos and comment!


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